


Petty Theft

by LotusDefender



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Fandom
Genre: Crime, Explosives, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Murder, Theft, These two are adorable, Violence, but this is no more violent than an assassins creed game, how did I tag this fic both fluff and murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 07:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15359547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LotusDefender/pseuds/LotusDefender
Summary: Prompt: character A gets into a cab only to find character B already insidePrompt: character A and character B steal something valuable together. Bonus points if they’re stealing something back.Jacob Frye is an absolute disaster of a human being. Ned Wynert is a distinguished crime lord. Together, they manage to be something almost functional.





	Petty Theft

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, just in case you didn't read the tags, this fic contains some violence. Specifically, Jacob and Ned both kill some people. It's nothing graphic and I don't describe it, but be warned, just in case!

 

It had been a very productive morning for Ned Wynert. He had gotten through a decent chunk of the ever-growing stack of reports on his desk, all of which showed a positive trend: the blighters were being pushed back. Business was booming. Whatever the Frye twins were doing, it was working.

He had just completed an inspection of one of his warehouses and had stepped into his personal carriage, when the door facing the busy street swung open and what appeared to be a vagrant clamored inside, pressing himself against the opposite seat, making it difficult for anyone outside to see him. Ned had a dagger out and was pressing it against the intruder’s neck before he realized exactly who had barged in on his morning.

Ned sighed, long and heavy, before pulling the knife away and leaning back into his seat. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the hidden blade the intruder had inches from his gut was also being pulled away. “Frye, what on earth do you think you’re doing?”

“Hiding?”

“Dammit Frye, I can see that, but what are you doing hiding in my carriage in the middle of the day! Can’t you hide anywhere else? Get out, I’ve got work to do.”

“I didn’t know it was _your_ carriage,” Jacob retorted. “And—get down!”

“I’m not doing anything of the sort,” Ned snapped as the assassin slid to the floor and pressed himself up against the door of the carriage, trying to be as small and hidden as possible. “I’m supposed to be in here, in case you don’t remember.” When Jacob didn’t move, Ned scanned the area he could see from the window. A group of policemen had run out into the street, and were looking about with confusion. “What did you do this time.”

“What do you mean, this time?” When Ned looked down, Jacob was grinning. Idiot. Ned thumped the top of the carriage with one hand.

“Where to, sir?” The driver called out.

“My offices, on the double.”

“Very good, sir.”

Jacob pulled himself back up into his seat, grinning all the while. “Are we partners in crime, now?”

“Don’t push it. You owe me now, Frye. Are you going to tell me what happened or not?”

Jacob leaned back and let his hands rest behind his head. “Well, there’s this Templar bloke who lives around here. Nasty fellow. Greenie’s got files on him and everything, so I decided to come take him out. Only, I wasn’t sneaky enough and some of those fellows chasing me saw me kill him, and took offence. And after all the bribes from Rook coffers I’ve given them…”

“The police can’t just ignore murders, Frye.”

“They _could_.”

Ned groaned and ran one hand through his hair. “For the love of—why are you even still here? We’ve lost the police, you can be on your way now.”

The smile dropped from Jacob’s face. For a moment, Ned thought he saw something akin to hurt flash across his features, but then it was gone, and Jacob was leaning forward and smiling an altogether different smile. “Maybe I just like being near you.”

Ned was not blushing. He was not blushing. He was most assuredly in no way god _dammit_ he was blushing.

“Speaking of favors…” Jacob pulled away, slowly returning to his relaxed position. “I know a fantastic way to repay this one. Let’s steal something. Together.”

“I’m not sure if that counts as repaying a favor. Besides, I have work to do.”

“Come on, Ned, it’ll be fun!”

The stack of papers on his desk that needed to be read flashed across Ned’s vison. He really, truly, needed to finish the paperwork.

But.

He hadn’t stolen anything, just stolen something instead of telling someone else to do it, in forever…

“Alright then, Frye, you have yourself a deal.”

Jacob clapped his hands together in delight. “Fantastic! We’re almost there, so let’s get to it!” Reaching for the handle, Jacob swung the door open and leaped out of the carriage. Slack-jawed, Ned placed both hands on either side of the door and leaned his head out to stare at Jacob. The assassin completed a perfectly timed roll and stood to face Ned as the carriage slowed, arms swung wide, as if inviting Ned to do the same.

“Just… deliver the carriage to my offices,” Ned told his driver, who was looking extraordinarily confused and more than a little concerned, and then jumped out himself.

“See? Fun!”

“This is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever done,” Ned told him as Jacob sauntered over. “What, exactly, are we stealing?”

“Stealing _back_ ,” Jacob corrected. “Remember that shipment of explosives that went missing?”

Ned raised one eyebrow. A cartload of explosives that was supposed to be delivered two days ago had never arrived. Word had been delivered yesterday that the blighters hijacked the shipment a little while after it entered London. It had been damn expensive, too. “Rings a bell.”

“Well, Evie located it a block or so thataway,” Jacob pointed to his left, “In a little walled off back alley. Hiding in plain sight, and all that. She decided it was ‘too dangerous’ to try hijacking what with the chance it might explode, what with the troupe of trigger happy blighters guarding it. Let’s prove her wrong, huh?”

Ned pressed one hand to his chin and thought the situation over. “Since it’s explosives, it really would be safer to send in a group of my people instead of just the two of us. Less of a chance that we’ll get ourselves, or any bystanders, killed.”

“Oh.”

Up until that moment, Jacob’s voice had been laced with excitement. As Jacob looked at the ground, Ned could have sworn he was about to start scuffing his boot against the ground like a disappointed schoolboy. It wasn’t the reaction he had expected. There were plenty of other shipments to hijack in London.

“Well. I mean. We can always solve it that way. Probably would be safer.”

Maybe, just maybe, Jacob had been excited not just to steal this shipment, but to steal it with him. Ned rolled the idea over in his mind before deciding it was a plausible theory. And, well, he’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want to spend time with Jacob as well. Ned hated lying to himself.

Stealing these explosives was a terrible idea. God damn it. He was going to do this.

“Where did you say the explosives were again?”

The grin Jacob flashed him was a reward in and of itself. “Not that far. Follow me!” With that, Jacob turned on his heel and ran into an alley, startling bystanders as he went. With a half-smile creeping onto his face and threatening to turn into a grin, Ned ran after him. Being a mastermind and the head of a crime syndicate had its advantages, but it had been far to long since he had stolen something for the thrill of it.

Jacob was right, the shipment truly hadn’t been far. It was tucked in a somewhat quiet section of London, surrounded by buildings on all sides save for the one alley large enough for the cart. All around, Ned could see blighters. Some sitting and relaxing, one group standing around a fire, another playing cards. On the other rooftops, Ned could see lookouts with long rifles. None appeared to be able to see the pair, but he kept them in the back of his mind as he scanned the area below.

What truly horrified Ned was the fact he could see the cart clear as day. It wasn’t covered with so much as a tarp, and a pair of horses were hitched to the cart. If not for the large number of guards, and the blighter casually relaxing in the driver’s seat, Ned would have said the cart was begging to be stolen.

“This is the absolute _worst_ place to keep a cart of explosives!” Ned exclaimed. “It’s right in plain view! It’s not even covered! These people are _insane_!”

“I never knew you could scale a building that fast,” Jacob replied, voice revealing he was impressed.

“I used to be a jewel thief. I’ve scaled more than a few walls, I’ll have you know.”

As he surveyed the area, Jacob’s eyes seemed to cloud over and focus all at the same time. Ned had seen that expression on both of the Frye twin’s faces once or twice before. Whatever Jacob was doing, it never failed to unnerve him. “There’s more blighters in the building. We have to be fast, no time to pick everyone off one at a time.”

Ned was about to warn Jacob they were about to be spotted, when Jacob pulled a knife from his coat and threw it towards the closest of the three lookouts. A second passed, and the woman collapsed to the ground. Ned had no doubt that she was dead. “Excellent throw, Frye. I think I have a plan.”

“Do tell.”

“How much range do your smoke bombs have? Can they cover the entire cart, and a foot or two of distance around it?”

“Oh, they can cover more distance than that,” Jacob said. “The entire cart, and three feet all around it as well.”

“Perfect. Then let’s get to the closest rooftop to that cart. We’re going to have to take out at least one of the other lookouts.”

“I can handle that.”

“Excellent! Then let’s do this.”

Together, they darted along the rooftops, heads low in order to draw less attention. As Ned pressed himself against the scaffolding that held up the lookout’s perch, Jacob clamored over it and killed the lookout with a quick thrust of his hidden blade before she even knew what was happening. He slid back down to Ned and pulled a smoke bomb from inside his coat. “Ready?”

“Absolutely. You get the closest few, I’ll get the driver, then we book it out of here.”

“Then let’s do this!” Jacob threw the smoke bomb to the ground, and a second later, leaped off the building. Ned gasped in horror, before realizing he would land in a haystack. A sense of relief not dimming the adrenaline and excitement in his veins, Ned quickly climbed down the wall and darted towards the cart. Relying on memory to tell him where the cart was, Ned could hear the sound of strangled gasps all around him, the only discernible way to tell Jacob was playing his part perfectly.

Reaching the cart, Ned leaped up, dagger in hand, and pulled the only now visible blighter down from his perch, sliding his blade across the coughing man’s throat as he went down. Beside him, he could barely see the figure of Jacob as he slid into the cart beside him. “Go! Go!”

Ned flicked the reins with force, and the horses began to first trot, and then gallop as they cleared the just-wide-enough alley and out into the street as blighters all around them began to run towards the cart. Ned heard a thud, and risked a glance behind him, only to see that one of the blighters had climbed onto the cart.

“DON’T STAND ON EXPLOSIVES,” Ned yelled as Jacob stood, pulled his gun, and shot the man twice in the chest. He tumbled to the ground, extremely dead.

Jacob laughed, and to his slight horror, Ned felt laughter rising out of his chest as well. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a cart screech down a corner street and begin to chase them. “Jacob! We’ve got pursuit!”

“I see them! Just keep the cart from blowing up!”

“Got it!”

Ned lost track of how many gunshots Jacob fired off. When the third cart appeared, he began to suspect that they might be in trouble. It came closer and closer, Jacob busy picking off the other blighters trying to kill them. “Jacob! To the left!”

“I see them!”

Jacob swung around and fired at the driver. The blighter ducked his head, and then jerked at his reigns. The cart swerved, and Ned had to swing, even if only for a moment, into oncoming traffic. “We’re in a cart full of explosives! Are they TRYING to get themselves killed!”

“Apparently!” Jacob fired again, and the enemy cart began to swerve as the blighter fell to the ground.

After a strong thirty seconds of no gunfire, Ned yelled up to Jacob, “There’s a safe house not too far from here! See any other pursuit?”

“We’re clear!”

“Perfect!”

Ned slowed the cart just enough to safely turn a corner, and accelerated when he spotted the warehouse he had been heading towards this entire time. It would be almost entirely empty this time of day, as there were no shipments being held there. The horses rushed through the open loading bay doors, and slowed to a halt only a few feet from a wall. Ned leaped from the cart to the ground, and ran to the loading bay doors. “Come on! We have to get these closed before anyone sees.”

Jacob ran after him. Together, they turned the wheel that controlled the opening and closing of the gate. With a loud screech, it began to close, eventually hitting the ground and enclosing them in near darkness.

Turning to face the assassin, Ned suddenly realized how close they were. He was still gasping, adrenaline coursing through his body. It pleased him, strangely, to see that Jacob was doing the same. He had to tilt his head upwards to almost an awkward angle to see the assassin’s face. For several impossibly long moments, they simply stared at each other. In the scarce light, Jacob’s eyes seemed impossibly bright, and Ned wondered how he had never noticed what an impossibly beautiful shade of brown they were, or even that brown as a color could _be_ beautiful.

If you asked him later, Ned Wynert wouldn’t be able to tell you who kissed who first, even if he was inclined to. The pair seemed to come to the same conclusion instantly, reaching for each other in the dark of the warehouse. Ned grabbed the edges of Jacob’s coat and pulled, just as Jacob’s arms wrapped around him, drawing him in close. They kissed, long and hard, before finally pulling apart to come up for air.

“The next time you’re running from the police,” Ned gasped, as his heartrate began to steady into something resembling normal, “You should _absolutely_ hide in my carriage. Only good things can come from it.”

Jacob laughed, and didn’t unwrap his arms from around the smaller man’s form. “I will most certainly take you up on that offer. But until then, I don’t suppose there’s anywhere you have to be?”

Despite the thoughts of paperwork and responsibility flashing through his mind, the dirty warehouse around them, and the cart of very dangerous explosives behind them, Ned realized,

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”


End file.
